New season pork course with a French chef in Magok: Don Tamguso

A good spot to visit when you want a slightly special meal in Magok — this time I went to Don Tamguso.

This place builds its whole course around pork, but not in the way you'd expect from a typical grilled samgyeopsal (pork belly) or mokgeumsal (pork neck) restaurant. Instead, pork is worked into a full tasting course through a variety of cooking methods and ingredients.

What's new in Don Tamguso's new season course

Apparently Don Tamguso recently kicked off a new season with a pretty interesting change.

It's the meeting of the existing Japanese chef with a newly joined French chef.

The new arrival is Chef Lee Do-young. According to his profile, he graduated from Le Cordon Bleu, placed in numerous international cooking competitions, and built experience at places like Melbourne restaurants and the InterContinental Hotel.

Hearing that resume, you'd expect a fairly classic French or fine-dining style course. But Don Tamguso takes that experience in a more playful direction. The existing Japanese delicacy combined with the French chef's varied techniques, sauces, and spices made it feel less like a donmakase where you just sample different cuts of pork, and more like eating a single, unified course.

Inside Don Tamguso: the room and the menu

The Don Tamguso course, dish by dish

Celeriac vichyssoise

The first dish was celeriac vichyssoise, which built depth and added texture. Its subtle sweetness and distinctive nutty flavor paired better than I expected.

Rather than opening heavy or intense, the course started gently to open up the palate. Right from this first dish, it already diverged from what you'd picture as a 'pork course.'

Seasonal fruit caprese with prosciutto

Next came the seasonal fruit caprese — orange, apple, pear, and dried persimmon paired with prosciutto, basil, and house-made honey ricotta.

The sweet, refreshing fruit was joined by the saltiness of prosciutto, with the ricotta smoothing everything out. In a long tasting course, the middle can start to feel heavy, but a bright dish like this refreshed the palate before the next course.

Shiitake mushroom lasagna, a different take

Next up was a lasagna made with shiitake mushroom. Instead of building it around noodles like a typical lasagna, they say it uses shiitake along with a truffle white ragu, mozzarella, and tomato — plus a house-made smoky BBQ sauce on top.

It was fun seeing a familiar Italian dish reinterpreted in Don Tamguso's own way rather than served straightforwardly. The direction of this new season came through in dishes like this — personally, I felt this one captured the concept of the Japanese and French chefs building the season together better than any other.

Shio koji-aged pork tenderloin, grilled

Then came one of the main meat dishes: shio koji-aged tenderloin. Shio koji has become a familiar ingredient to many lately through cooking shows — it drew particular attention when Chef Lee Ha-sung, the 'cooking monster' from Culinary Class Wars, used it. Here at Don Tamguso, shio koji is used to age the pork tenderloin.

The aging added umami and softness to the naturally lean tenderloin, and truffle plus extra virgin olive oil brought out even more aroma.

Pork tenderloin can easily come off as plain or bland, so I liked how the aging and aromatics gave it a more layered flavor.

Spice-rubbed oven-roasted pork belly with minari salad

"Eat this and it's going to feel like samba!"

And one of the moments I remember most from the day. Right before the spice-rubbed meat came out, the chef was explaining the dish and suddenly said this. Honestly, I had no idea what he meant at first. I laughed along when he said 'samba,' but the moment I took a bite, I completely understood why he put it that way. It had a spice profile totally different from the pork I usually eat, and it genuinely brought an exotic vibe to the table.

It wasn't just spicy or heavily seasoned — there was a distinct aroma and flavor you don't usually get from Korean food or typical grilled meat. Slightly unfamiliar but fun, it was a dish that flipped the mood midway through the course. The chef's 'samba' comment really wasn't an exaggeration. Eating this dish, I could feel more clearly where this new season of Don Tamguso is heading — using a familiar ingredient like pork but creating a completely different atmosphere through cooking method, spice, and sauce.

Abalone risotto with gaejang sauce, fried bangpung greens and the signature burger

For the last course, if there are two of you, here's how to do it. The final dish came with a choice between the signature burger and the signature risotto. Since we visited as two, one of us ordered the burger and the other the risotto — which meant we ended up trying both. I'd genuinely recommend doing this if you're visiting with someone else: order different dishes and share.

The signature burger was loaded with house-made jambon, carrot rapee, and coleslaw, making it feel different from a typical heavy, patty-centered burger. Even as the final dish of a tasting course, it didn't feel too heavy — more like enjoying a whole plate of varied ingredients. The risotto had a completely different charm from the burger. It came topped with shepherd's-purse tempura. This was genuinely delicious.

And honestly, the dish I personally loved most: the shepherd's-purse tempura. After a full tasting course, it's usually the main meat or the final dish that sticks with you, but this time the tempura left the strongest impression. The crispy fry texture was great, but its distinct fragrant flavor kept me reaching for more. Having a fried dish like this appear in the middle of a course full of meat and sauces added a fun textural contrast too. And splitting the burger and risotto between the two of us made comparing the dishes part of the fun.

Dessert, left up to the chef

This is insane… officially the best dessert of 2026 haha. I recently went to both The Shilla Hotel and an omakase restaurant, and this was still the best. 'Dessert number one' — chef, are you seeing this? 🥹🥹🥹

How Don Tamguso paced a full house

Beyond the food, there was one more thing I really liked about this visit.

The restaurant was completely full when we visited. For a tasting-course restaurant, the quality of the food matters, but how smoothly things run when it's fully booked really affects how satisfying the meal feels. If dishes come out too slowly, or conversely get rushed one after another, the flow of the meal can feel broken no matter how good the food is. But that day, even at full capacity, the timing of each dish and the overall pacing were remarkably smooth.

The chef's explanations for each dish felt natural, and even in the middle of a busy service, there was never a sense of chaos or rush. I imagine his years of experience across hotels, overseas kitchens, and large restaurants show in how steadily he keeps the flow going even under pressure. Cooking well matters, but for a tasting course, the entire experience — from the moment you sit down to the last bite of dessert — matters just as much.

On that front, Don Tamguso showed pretty professional service and steady pacing that day even while fully booked. Chatting with the chef about each dish while the next course followed naturally let us focus more on the meal itself.

A new season where Japanese and French cooking meet

What was most interesting about this Don Tamguso visit wasn't just that a new chef had joined, but how two different styles — Japanese and French — actually meet within a single course. The delicate handling of ingredients and the structure of the course felt Japanese, while the soups, lasagna, sauces, and spices carried the French chef's varied experience. As a result, despite being a pork-centered course, it almost never felt monotonous.

Starting gently, moving into the bright seasonal fruit caprese, shifting with the shiitake lasagna and herb tempura, then showing real personality with the shio koji-aged tenderloin and spice-rubbed meat — and finally letting you choose between burger or risotto — the flow never got boring from start to finish. The shepherd's-purse tempura was genuinely delicious, and the spice rub the chef called 'samba!' was one of the most fun moments of the course. And the meat, cooked perfectly evenly throughout... whoever's grilling really has a gift. 🤣🤣🤣

If you've been to Don Tamguso before, there's fun to be had experiencing the new season's menu and mood. And for first-timers, it's a great option for a slightly different tasting course in Magok. Don Tamguso takes a familiar ingredient like pork and reworks it through Japanese delicacy and French cooking range. Now that the new season has started, it's worth experiencing firsthand how much has changed.